San Miguel’s Water Crisis and What You Can Do About It

Community produly displays their Caminos sustems for clean drinking water

By Robin Loving

The water of San Miguel de Allende’s aquifer is dropping at a rapid and unsustainable rate and is contaminated with toxic levels of heavy metals and minerals. Dylan Terrell, executive director of Caminos de Agua (formerly CATIS Mexico), will explain the main water issues facing San Miguel Tuesday, April 12, at 12:30pm at Rotary, which will be at Hotel Misión, Salida a Querétaro 1. The presentation will be free and in English.

Rotary PresentationSan Miguel’s Water Crisis and What You Can Do About ItTue, Apr 12, 12:30pmHotel MisiónSalida a Querétaro 1

Caminos de Agua has been working on an integrated approach to water issues in the region, conducting extensive water quality testing in more than 70 rural communities within our watershed since 2012. In addition, Caminos has initiated an urban water-quality monitoring program for San Miguel. New information on water quality issues will be presented in both national and global contexts in this presentation.

In addition, Terrell will report on the progress of a new low-tech fluoride absorber, which Caminos hopes to begin piloting in 2016; and on an adapted rainwater harvesting system, which Caminos and partners began implementing in other communities in 2015.

Terrell has coordinated water programming, technology development, and community projects for Caminos and its predecessor organization since 2011. His work in rural Mexico is dedicated to creating low-tech, replicable solutions to locally acute—yet globally distributed—water quality problems. His focus has revolved around the development and implementation of low-cost ceramic water filters for microbiological contamination, bone char production for fluoride remediation, low-tech rainwater harvesting innovations, and bio-char treatment systems for synthetic organic chemical compounds. Terrell also leads a water-quality monitoring and mapping program in our area.

Prior to working for Caminos, Terrell lived and worked in numerous communities throughout Latin America, including Argentina, Peru, and Guatemala. In Peru he worked at an orphanage, where his passion for sustainable development and rural community life first began, before spending several years working for a grassroots nonprofit in Denver, Colorado, developing various asset-based community programs.

Terrell moved to Chiapas in 2009 to work with several indigenous communities in appropriate technology and social development projects, which eventually led him to his work with Caminos. He received his master’s degree in Global Sustainability and Rural Development in 2012 from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. His final thesis analyzed the effects of neoliberal policy on rural Latin America and the implications of rural-to-urban migration on global sustainability.

Rotary unites neighbors, community leaders, and global citizens for the common good. For more information, contact President David McGinnis at davidsmcginnis3@gmail.com and rotarysmamidday.org. For more information about Caminos, contact Terrell at dylan@caminosdeagua.org, 415 124 1691, and/or caminosdeagua.org.